RDRAM wasn't all that cheap to begin with among other things, and didn't help it's popularity. For those that needed the higher performance RDRAM offered before dual-channel DDR came along, particularly with the i840 and i850 chipsets, you didn't really have an option. RDRAM was on it's way out after Intel put out Granite Bay, or the E7xxx chipset. The main problem with RDRAM was that it was proprietary, and anyone wishing to produce modules needed a liscense, and part of their profits on RDRAM went to Rambus. The other issue that didn't help anything is the high latency it had. Rambus the company didn't do itself any favors when it falsely claimed patent rights to certain parts of JEDEC standards on SDRAM and consequently DDR. This was part of the reason that Intel dropped RDRAM from their chipset roadmap. IMO, if Rambust hadn't gone ahead and started suing companies on their claim of patent rights on SDRAM technology, they might have had a brighter future.